[DfrtYhyu]

My phone contract has come to and end and I'm in the market for a new one, I've got two real choices that I can see. Which do you think would be best?

The contract that has just ended was on o2 18 months @ £35 p/m for 600Mins/500Texts.

The two options I have are:

Option 1

Nokia N97 on T-Mobile / 18 Months @ £35 p/m / 700Mins/Unlimited Texts/Unlimited Internet / Phone cost £30

Option 2

iPhone3GS (8GB) on o2 / 24 Months @ £35 p/m / 600Mins/500Texts/Unlimited Intenet / Phone cost £0

I was offered the iPhone for free by the retention department but they said it can only do it on a 24 month contract... I don't really like the idea of being stuck with a phone for 2 full years... even though it probably wouldn't matter I'd like it to end sooner rather than later... ideally I'd like a 12 month contract but it's impossible to find any that are good.

Anyway, I told them I didn't want it and to cancel my contract so I'm not sure I would even be able to get it now if I phoned back anyway.

Overall the N97 is cheaper for more allowance (although I rarely use more than 300 mins or texts in a month but there have been times when it has been useful) and was originally my first choice, but everyone always goes on about how good iPhones are... I've never used one but there must be more to that than simple marketing and fanboyism.

EDIT- Or I suppose I could go with one of these sim-only deals and just wait a while for phones to become cheaper, buying one sim-free

[rostpribru]

The N97 seems to offer the better contract, not to mention you get a phone with a replaceable batter, better cam and 32GB of storage. However, the iPhone is a pretty damn good device, the app store is amazing, the apps are brilliant and OS3.0 has added many things that were missing before.

The only thing i think apples really needs to do is stick a flash for the cam in there and get that swanky browser supporting flash too!

Yours,
Nokia fanboy

[hujdrftgkas]

I ordered a N97 direct from Vodafone. I do not like ordering from 3rd party over the internet in case there are issues, and the majority are managed contracts.

I went direct to them and got:

Free Phone
1200 Minutes
Unlimited Landline Calls
Unlimited Texts
Unlimited Internet.
Free Speakers.
1 months free insurance.
£45 per month.

It was £10 over what I wanted to pay. However I just got a pay rise, which easily covers the additional £10. I balanced it against buying a phone outright @ £500 and a rolling 30 day contract @ £25 and for the same deal and it saved me money and did not have to buy the phone. On top of that, I have the option to go in to a shop whenever I want for any issues.

T-mobile have patchy to say the least coverage and it drove me nuts. I never had an issue in all the time I was with Vodafone, plus they are the only company to support the full 7.2mbps speed of the N97.

In terms of the phone, the iPhone is only just getting specs of phones from around the time of the N95. It has no camera flash, no internet flash and crap camera. It has a good app store, but Ovi is coming on in leaps and bounds. Games are of course great, but then I have my iPod touch V2 for this. The feature list of the N97 swamps the iPod which only really has its excellent touch screen and simple UI as a benefit.

[DadaSeeva]

Can you get the same deal on the N97 with anyone apart from t-mobile? Going from O2's great coverage you will rue the day that you join t-mobile.

Risco - I don't know if this will work on vodafone but when I got my iPhone 3G 9 months ago I took out the £45 a month contract to get the phone free. After 9 months you can drop a tariff down at o2 so I just dropped mine down to the £35 a month tariff.

Regarding the iPhone camera, I have never encountered a mobile phone yet that takes a decent picture at night with the pathetic LED flashes they provide. I think they are just marketing gimmicks. Apparently the 3GS camera is a lot better quality but I haven't seen it in action.

Personally I'd take the N97 or the Palm Pre right now as the 3GS isn't really enough of an upgrade for me. I'm very much hoping for a brand spanking new iPhone in a years time and I will change to that.

[hujdrftgkas]

Can you get the same deal on the N97 with anyone apart from t-mobile? Going from O2's great coverage you will rue the day that you join t-mobile.

Risco - I don't know if this will work on vodafone but when I got my iPhone 3G 9 months ago I took out the £45 a month contract to get the phone free. After 9 months you can drop a tariff down at o2 so I just dropped mine down to the £35 a month tariff.

Regarding the iPhone camera, I have never encountered a mobile phone yet that takes a decent picture at night with the pathetic LED flashes they provide. I think they are just marketing gimmicks. Apparently the 3GS camera is a lot better quality but I haven't seen it in action.

Personally I'd take the N97 or the Palm Pre right now as the 3GS isn't really enough of an upgrade for me. I'm very much hoping for a brand spanking new iPhone in a years time and I will change to that.

Yeah, they told me I can drop the contract after 9 months. I have not had a decent camera phone since my Sony Ericsson K800i with xenon flash,

[viagradiscounttt]

Before you do anything - try them out.

Last thing you want is something that'll annoy or bug you if you feel you have made the wrong choice. Especially if you are going by paper facts/specs.

Both deals are similar.

Go for the phone you will be happy with.
In the long run - that will be more important than minor monthly savings or contract length.

[Galvanoidum]

Can retentions not offer you a iPhone 3G? and not the 3GS..

They gave me one free on an 18 month contract.

[hujdrftgkas]

Before you do anything - try them out.

Last thing you want is something that'll annoy or bug you if you feel you have made the wrong choice. Especially if you are going by paper facts/specs.

Both deals are similar.

Go for the phone you will be happy with.
In the long run - that will be more important than minor monthly savings or contract length.

True, I did this at Regent St. and was totally underwhelmed by the 3GS...

[Auzuigcx]

Option 2

iPhone3GS (8GB) on o2 / 24 Months @ £35 p/m / 600Mins/500Texts/Unlimited Intenet / Phone cost £0

I was offered the iPhone for free by the retention department but they said it can only do it on a 24 month contract... I don't really like the idea of being stuck with a phone for 2 full years... even though it probably wouldn't matter I'd like it to end sooner rather than later... ideally I'd like a 12 month contract but it's impossible to find any that are good.

Anyway, I told them I didn't want it and to cancel my contract so I'm not sure I would even be able to get it now if I phoned back anyway.

You might want to clarify the iPhone with o2 as Apple don't do the 3GS in 8 gig - Linky. I had something similar when I wanted to upgrade my N95 to the SE C905 (I loved my old K800i which I had before my N95) and the lady on the phone certainly said C905 ... but when she went over some of the key features it was clear she meant C902. I didn't make a fuss in the end as I went with secret option number two and bought myself a 3G iPhone on PAYG

My personal preference would be to go for the iPhone, regardless of whether it's a 3G or 3GS because while the camera is extra shoddy, tbh camera phones have limited appeal to me anyway, everything I want it to do, e-mail, SMS, phone calls, games, iPod, browse internet etc etc it does supremely well. Also I love the o2 network, they've been nothing but good to me

If however it does turn out to be a 3G and not a 3GS you should surely be able to get the contract length down to 18 months I would have thought, especially since the deal isn't really any better then what they offer online:

3G o2 Tariffs

£34.26 (18 months)
iPhone 3G 8 Gig £96.89
600 mins 500 texts Unlimited Data

/edit/ Shrunk quote